The problem of obesity is a nationwide problem. More than 65% of Americans (about 127 million adults) are overweight and 30% are considered obese (see www.obesity.org or www.cdc.gov). Approximately nine million American children ages 6-19 are considered overweight and 16% of American children are considered obese. The annual cost of overweight and obesity in the U.S. is more than $120 billion. As many studies show, we are living in a time of an obesity epidemic and the conclusion of such studies indicates that the main causes of obesity are bad nutrition and lack of physical activity. Therefore, in order to prevent obesity it is necessary for people to change their eating behaviors that will affect the change in body weight by including good nutrition and physical activity in their lifestyles.
It is clear that a proper nutritional plan and physical activity are the most important factors in dealing with obesity. It is also clear that recognizing obesity in its early stages is an important factor in dealing with obesity. If obesity is recognized in its early stage minor adjustments to the person's lifestyle may be sufficient to prevent the development of an obesity condition in an individual. Such a system may become a part of our mentality to reinforce our efforts to deal with obesity. Such an obesity preventing system will attempt to prevent obesity even when people are exposed to various human experiences (e.g., loss of a job, marriage, acquiring a new stressful job, etc.) that are life-changing. One of the signs of these changes occurring is a change in the health and usually the weight of a person.
There are two strategies that may be used to fight obesity. One is to treat people when they become obese. The second is to forecast obesity of a person by monitoring a weight trend of the person and creating a treatment plan to prevent obesity before the person becomes obese.
However, there is still a need for an obesity forecasting and preventing method and system.